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| Destruction in the town of Greenwood after the tornado occurred. |
The tornado was only on the ground for four minutes, touching down at approximately 3:15 PM in the southern sections of Greenwood. The courthouse, city hall, and many homes were destroyed in the few minutes the tornado was on the ground. The death toll and injuries could have been much higher if the tornado had occurred a few minutes earlier. Luckily, the tornado struck the local high school 15 to 20 minutes after school had ended for the day and no students were injured.
An Arkansas State trooper that responded to the city stated: "It looked like the aftermath of World War II bombing raids”.
The damage was estimated at $1.5 million dollars (1968 dollars). 98 homes in Greenwood were destroyed and over 100 more were severely damaged. 35 businesses were destroyed. Below is a video of residents going over personal accounts of this deadly tornado event.
The storm system that produced the Greenwood tornado produced 12 tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas that day. The Greenwood tornado holds the reputation of being the most violent of those tornadoes.
Obviously, radar technology and warning systems were not as advanced as they are now, the residents of Greenwood had little warning of the tornado. If this type of tornado were to occur today, the advances in weather radar would give citizens plenty of time to take shelter.
In 1968 the National Weather Service was using the WSR-57 radar. This was one of the fore-runners to the WSR-74 and eventually the WSR-88(D) radar that is in use today. The radar technology (by today’s standards) was primitive. Below is a photo representing how the National Weather Service office would have looked like in 1968, along with a forecaster looking at radar data.
Below are additional pictures showcasing the catastrophic damage from this violent tornado:
